Do's and Don'ts of moving

Loading a Trailer

This is the bread and butter of all moves, how much can you get in the trailer so you don’t have to make multiple trips. Obviously the more efficiently you can pack it the faster your move goes, and contrary to popular opinion the safer your things are while in transit. Density works as protection for your stuff.

First this is not what you want it to look like: This is what you DO want it to look like:

Here’s a good rule of thumb, if you can see the front of the trailer from the back of trailer, you just wasted money. You are renting the space of the trailer so you either wasted money or you wasted time, which according to the adage is money, so yeah…..

Rule number 1: Heavier stuff towards the front, the way that the trailer is structured in conjunction with the truck is such that the trailer will tow better with more weight in the front than in the back. So have a game plan of the items that are going in and have an order of the heaviest items laid out in your mind, beginning with the heaviest toward the front.

Rule number 2: Make the first wave of loading go all the way to deck. Like the picture above on the right that shows this done correctly you must take the first section all the way to the deck to create a wall for you to stack against the rest of the way. You will never be able to stack a row higher than the one in front of it. It must only descend toward the back of the trailer. So the goal is to keep it as high as you can for as long as you can so as to not waste any space.

Rule number 3: Not all boxes are meant to stack. If the goal is to build the wall as high as you can at the front of the trailer and keep adding on to that, you must partially rely on your arsenal of boxes and tubs to do so. As furniture tends to be clunky and oddly shaped your tubs and boxes are going to be the most consistently shaped and stackable. However, once you get 7 or 8 boxes high that bottom box has a tendency to start getting smushed. This usually gets worse as you begin to drive. You must pay attention to the weight of each box as well as the integrity of the top of the box. If its a new box it will respond to stacking on top of it much better than if it was say an older box. So pay attention to the sturdiness and obviously begin with the heaviest box on the bottom.